Archives for January 2010

So it’s been stormin’ like crazy the last 3 days.  I wish I was going to the snow tomorrow, cuz the pow pow is gonna be 12 feet deep in tahoe.  Dang I wish I was there.

In the meantime, we’ve had tons of rain saturate our land, our car port/cover thing went flying in some kinda torrential wind storm that ripped it to bits and landed it like 40 feet away-upside down in my yard, and then bits and stints of hail.

Usually it would rain hard, hail for a second, then stop.  Today about 4:30pm though, it rained, then it hailed, then it really hailed, then it started dropping 3/8″ balls.

Then it covered my entire street.  

Then it got the UPS guy stuck as he spined his wheels.

Then it turned into bowling for brothers and sisters as the big kids were too heavy to slide, but the ice balls were large and regular enough for the entire neighborhood to sled our street with the little ones.  

Then TJ figured out that the trampoline was covered in balls of ice and yeah… that’s way fun when you’re 12!!

There you go, one crazy San Diego day for the memory books!

On my way up to speaking at a winter retreat, our carpool past this sign off the 15 in Mesquite Nevada, just before the AZ border.

I laughed for like 10 miles.

This photo is crying out for a caption.  Here’s mine:

“You can buy a burger for a buck, but it’ll cost you two if you wanna give it back.”

What’s yours?

You know that a major 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday.
You know the death toll is rising and that at least 40,000 people already have died.
You know that over a million people liver there on less than $2 a day.
You know that many of those devastated are small children.
You know the world is sending aid to them.
You know that we are part of the world and called to act.

I came home after seminary to be bum rushed by all my kids in the driveway. I heard them upstairs yelling, “Dad’s home. Dad’s home.” They then ran outside proclaiming, “the jars are here. the jars are here. Mom wouldn’t let us open them without you.”

What jars you ask? Well, last week in a moment of angst, I told my kids that I’d been thinking, and it was time I instituted a point system. “Help a family member.. earn a point. Act selfish and walk up the stars not taking your room mates coat up in your empty hands and it’ll cost you point”, I decreed from the stairs.

My wife overheard my banter and proclaimed, “I like it. Let’s do it.”

So, I went surfing the net for the perfect jar and poker chips for points.

We then spent a dinner last week talking about how these jars work, and they could hardly wait to get started. So here’s the plan:

GREEN CHIPS ARE FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR. We give them liberally for the following:

• do your chores without us asking
• keep your room clean.
• say nice words. be an encourager.
• get a good report from the sitter.
• eat all your dinner
• good grades
• show selfless servanthood like Jesus himself. Bonus if you are dressed like Jesus.
• etc.

• say mean things
• don’t do what you are asked to do, when you are asked to do it.
• do what you are asked to do, but do it so poorly you have to do it again.
• act selfish and look out for only you
• pitch a fit
• refuse to kiss your dad
• etc…

STUFF YOU CAN DO WITH GREEN CHIPS IF YOU HAVE NO BLACK CHIPS:

• buy desert after dinner
• get wii time on a school night
• ice cream trips
• stay up late and watch a movie on the weekend
• spend the night at a friends
• etc.

THE RULES:

• green chips can only be spent if there are no black chips in your jar.
• black chips can be redeemed with 3 green chips.
• you can never ask “can I do that for a green chip”, or you can do it for no chip or a black chip, your choice.
• only mom and dad can award/redeem chips
• how many green chips you get, how many chips something costs to buy, or how many black chips are passed out is the sole discretion of mom and dad.

There you go. We’re playin’ poker the Berrytribe way. Wish us luck!!!

A very rare treat was enjoyed by the Berrytribe this weekend.  I think maybe for the second time in the 5 years we have lived in SD, Alisha, Brad, and the cousins were able to join us for a couple of days of bonding.  Such a rare time.  I wish we lived closer to my sister and her family.  We all love it.

They have been here in the states for about 5 weeks and leave in mid January back to Kampala, Uganda until June.  We got to spend the weekend with them so, we decided to spend Saturday (minus TJ who went to winter camp with Riptide) together at the children’s museum in downtown SD and act like kids.  We then cruised over to seaport village for some more fun and topped it off by heading to Red Robin for all you can eat glutton free fries in La Jolla 🙂

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Here’s like 16,000 words: